Total pages in book: 117
Estimated words: 110694 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 553(@200wpm)___ 443(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 110694 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 553(@200wpm)___ 443(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)
My phone vibrated in the pocket of my leggings, and I ignored it. I knew who it was, and right now, I wasn’t going to be able to talk to Hudson or respond to his text. I had a movie to get through with a man I didn’t know if I trusted or not.
“Which ice cweam is oat milk?” Stevie asked him as he handed her a bowl.
There were three different ice cream flavors—chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla—displayed in a serving piece that seemed to also be a freezing unit so that it didn’t melt. Stevie was on her tiptoes, peering up at them with interest.
“All of them are. Take your pick,” Linc informed her.
“Weally?” she asked in amazement. “I want all thwee!”
Linc grinned down at her and went to scoop her some from each vat. I would normally say something about the portion size, but right now, that was the least of my worries. The less I had to talk, the better.
As soon as she had three scoops in her bowl, she went to the chocolate fountain. He went behind her and showed her how to hold her bowl. I watched them for a moment. Memories I had repressed, not allowing myself to dwell on them, hit me, one right after another.
It was only when he did things like this that I saw a glimpse of the guy I had once known. Because the man he had become was someone altogether different.
Twenty-Six Years Ago
The chaos around me felt a thousand miles away. My chest ached with every sob that racked my body. I heard a siren in the distance. The smell of hay, horses, and cigarettes was the only constant around me. The rest…the rest was my world tilted on its axis.
No one was telling me what had happened or why my daddy had collapsed on the ground.
I’d run to him, but never made it, Kenneth—had stopped me. His hands clamping over my shoulders and holding me back as others began to call out and rush to Daddy.
One of the stablehands, Patrick, was doing CPR on him. I screamed for him, but Kenneth held on to me, telling me it was okay. That I needed to let them work on my daddy. It wasn’t okay though. My wails tore from me as he continued to lie there, not moving.
This wasn’t real. It couldn’t be. My daddy was larger than life.
Just this morning, he had come into my room at five, like he always did, singing “Wake Up Little Susie” by The Everly Brothers. I groaned and threw my pillow at him. The full belly laugh from him had been followed by him telling me the bacon was going to get cold.
He wasn’t sick. Why was he not sitting up?
The siren was louder, and the roar in my head, along with more voices yelling, began to pull me under.
Then, I heard him. Not my dad, but Linc’s voice. When I turned around, Kenneth let go of me, and I saw Linc taking long, quick strides toward me. I let out a loud sob, then broke into a run. He would make this better. I just had to get to him.
When I reached him, he opened his arms, and I threw myself into them. He held me against his chest, and my tears soaked the front of his T-shirt. “I got you. Shhh,” his tone was meant to soothe, although not even Linc could do that. Not when my daddy wouldn’t get up off the ground.
“He’s gone,” I heard someone say, and I fisted Linc’s shirt in my hands.
“Fuck.” Linc’s voice was laced with pain.
I knew. He didn’t have to tell me; I knew it.
My daddy was never going to get up. Linc’s arms tightened around me as he rocked me back and forth. He didn’t lie to me and say it was going to be okay, like Kenneth had. He said nothing, just let me cry. While the grief engulfed me, Linc kept me from going under with it.
Twenty-Three
Branwen
Present Day
Leave it to Stevie to fall asleep after eating all that sugar. I had been sure she’d stay awake until the movie ended. One hour in, and her eyes had closed.
I knew Linc was watching me and not the movie. If he was trying to rattle me, he had already succeeded at that.
“Unless you want to be sure that Moana returns the heart of Te Fiti, I think we can call it a night,” I said, glancing from Stevie up to him.
“I’ll carry her,” he said, standing.
I didn’t argue. I was used to carrying her to bed after she fell asleep on the sofa, but not that far and not upstairs. I just hoped he laid her in bed, then left. There was so much of this house I hadn’t seen or been to, and I wasn’t sure where Linc’s bedroom was located. I imagined it was on the opposite end though. I didn’t think he would want his privacy invaded completely.